Editor
Hon. Robert H. Downer, Jr., General District Court Chief Judge Sixteenth Judicial District / Charlottesville (Expand/Collapse Bio)
Judge Robert H. Downer, Jr., co-editor of this book, has been a general district court judge for the Sixteenth Judicial District since June 1, 2001 and has served as chief judge of the district since July 1, 2005. Judge Downer presides in the City of Charlottesville four days each week and in Albemarle County at least once a week. Before being elected as judge by the General Assembly, Judge Downer was engaged in the general practice of law with the law firm of Boyle and Bain, later known as Boyle, Bain and Downer, for 25 years. Judge Downer is a graduate of the University of Virginia, earning his B.A. in 1970 and his J.D. in 1976. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar, The Virginia Bar Association, and the Virginia Association of District Court Judges. Judge Downer is a member and past president of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association and is also a member and past president of the Thomas Jefferson Inn of Court. He serves on the board of the James River Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program. He has previously served on the Judicial Conduct Committee, the Law Revision Committee, and the Education Committee of the Judicial Conference of Virginia for District Courts. He also serves as a Mentor Judge.
Hon. G. Barton Chucker, General District Court Chief Judge Fourteenth Judicial District / Henrico (Expand/Collapse Bio)
G. Barton Chucker, co-editor of this book, is the chief judge of the general district court for the Fourteenth Judicial District, serving in Henrico. Before his appointment to the bench, Judge Chucker was a partner with the law firm of Chucker & Reibach in Richmond where he focused his practice on the defense of drunk driving and traffic violations. He served for seven years as Special Counsel to the Courts of Justice Committee for the Virginia House of Delegates. Judge Chucker has served as a member of the faculties of the General District Court Judges Conference and the Judicial Transportation Safety Conference. He has authored numerous articles, resources, and materials associated with the defense of DUI and traffic cases. Judge Chucker also served as co-counsel to the House Subcommittee on Crime in connection with proposed changes to the DUI and traffic laws until appointed to the bench in July of 2013.
Timothy C. Carwile, Allen & Carwile, PC / Waynesboro (Expand/Collapse Bio)
Timothy C. Carwile, co-editor of this book and author of Chapter 4, lives and practices law in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and is a principal in the firm of Allen & Carwile, P.C., in Waynesboro. He holds a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the T.C. Williams School of Law of the University of Richmond. Mr. Carwile was a prosecutor for eight years in Waynesboro before concentrating on criminal defense work. He is a former president of the Augusta County-Staunton-Waynesboro Bar Association and a former member of the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Committee appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court and former member and chair of its Eighth District Ethics Committee; he is also a Substitute District Court Judge and has been recognized by a Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating as an “AV Preeminent” attorney. Mr. Carwile frequently lectures to attorneys, law enforcement and other legal organizations on various criminal law topics, including DUI and traffic defense and prosecution.
Authors
J. Burkhardt Beale, Boone Beale, PLLC / Woodbridge (Expand/Collapse Bio)
J. Burkhardt Beale, co-author of Chapter 5, is the CEO of the firm Boone Beale, PLLC. Mr. Beale’s primary areas of practice are driving while under the influence and criminal defense. He earned a B.A. from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from Washington and Lee University. Mr. Beale is admitted to practice in all Virginia courts and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He is a member of the Criminal Law Section of the Virginia State Bar, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, and the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He is also a lifetime member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a founding member of the National College for DUI Defense (NCDD), and a founding member of the DUI Defense Lawyers Association (DUIDLA). Mr. Beale has lectured for Virginia CLE since 1989 on evidence in DUI cases. He has also spoken at several national CLE conferences on DUI defense in Georgia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. His personal training includes certification as an instructor on the NHTSA standards on field sobriety testing and as an operator of the Intoxilyzer 5000 and the Intox EC/IR II.
Patrick M. Blanch, Zinicola, Blanch & Overand, PLLC / Fairfax and Leesburg (Expand/Collapse Bio)
Patrick M. Blanch, author of Chapter 2, is a member of Zinicola, Blanch & Overand, PLLC, which has offices in Fairfax and Leesburg, Virginia. Mr. Blanch’s practice focuses on criminal defense and appellate practice. He graduated with a B.A. from Millersville University of Pennsylvania and earned his J.D. from the George Washington University School of Law. Mr. Blanch is a member of the Fairfax Bar Association and is a frequent speaker on criminal law in Virginia.
Joseph King, King Campbell Poretz, PLLC / Alexandria (Expand/Collapse Bio)
Joseph King, co-author of Chapters 1 and 7, is a partner with the firm King Campbell Poretz, PLLC, in Alexandria. Mr. King’s criminal defense portfolio includes defending some of the area’s most significant murder cases (including Commonwealth v. Severance and Commonwealth v. Patterson) as well as defending federal white collar matters, federal and state drug offenses, and DUI/DWI allegations. His work in criminal defense has been recognized by top regional publications The Washingtonian (Best Lawyers—December 2015, 2013, and 2011 issues) and Northern Virginia Magazine (Best Lawyers—December 2016 and 2014 issues) as well as Virginia Super Lawyers. Before establishing his private legal practice in 2008, Mr. King worked as an attorney at the Alexandria Office of the Public Defender (2004-2008), which has a number of alumni recognized among the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area’s top trial lawyers. During his time as a public defender, Mr. King diligently worked on behalf of his indigent clients and attended the respected Trial Practice Institute at the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia. Mr. King received his J.D., cum laude, from The University of Michigan Law School in 2003. He earned a master’s degree in History from George Mason University in 1996 and a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Mary Washington College in 1992.
G. Manoli Loupassi, The Law Office of G. Manoli Loupassi, LLC / Richmond (Expand/Collapse Bio)
G. Manoli Loupassi, co-author of Chapter 5, is the principal for the Law Office of G. Manoli Loupassi, LLC, and practices law in the greater Richmond area. He previously was an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in the City of Richmond and also in Hanover County. Mr. Loupassi is the former Special Counsel to the Richmond Metropolitan Multijurisdictional Grand Jury, where he investigated and prosecuted cross-jurisdictional narcotics conspiracies and public corruption. He began his legal career as a judicial law clerk in the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond for the Honorable James B. Wilkinson. Mr. Loupassi earned a B.A. from Washington and Lee University and a J.D. from T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond. He has repeatedly been recognized in Virginia Business magazine by his peers as one of Virginia’s “Legal Elite” for his work in the areas of criminal and traffic defense. Mr. Loupassi has also been named a Super Lawyer by Thomson Reuters in the area of criminal defense.
Since 2015, Mr. Loupassi has served on the Board of Governors of the Virginia Bar Association and is a member of the John Marshall Inns of Court. In addition, he serves on the Criminal Law Section of The Virginia Bar Association.
Mr. Loupassi served as a member of the Richmond City Council for four years, as Chairman of the Richmond Public Safety Committee, and as president of the Richmond City Council for two years. He currently serves in the House of Delegates as Delegate for the 68th District and is on the Courts of Justice Committee, the State Crime Commission, and is the chair of the House Courts Judicial Selection Committee. In 2012, Mr. Loupassi sponsored legislation codifying the Commonwealth’s Rules of Evidence.
Marina Medvin, Medvin Law PLC / Alexandria (Expand/Collapse Bio)
Marina Medvin, co-author of Chapters 1 and 7, is an energetic trial lawyer. She focuses entirely on criminal defense and has litigated a variety of criminal cases, spanning the gamut from murder to reckless driving. Some of her most noteworthy cases include an FBI 10 Most Wanted fugitive, a WikiLeaks contributor, and an Anonymous hacktivist. Ms. Medvin’s criminal defense work has been recognized by The Washingtonian (Best Lawyers), Northern Virginia Magazine (Top Lawyers), and Virginia Super Lawyers (Rising Stars). Ms. Medvin is also a senior columnist at Townhall and an op-ed writer for various national publications. She graduated with honors from The Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Information Sciences and Technology, and she obtained her J.D. from George Mason University School of Law.
Hon. Matthew D. Nelson, General District Court Judge Twelfth Judicial District / Chesterfield County and Colonial Heights (Expand/Collapse Bio)
Matthew D. Nelson, author of Chapter 8, is a General District Court Judge in the Twelfth Judicial District, which serves the County of Chesterfield and the City of Colonial Heights. Before being appointed to the bench, he was a partner with the law firm of Caddell Nelson & Reibach in Richmond, Virginia. His law practice focused on the defense of drunk driving and traffic violations. Judge Nelson also served as Special Counsel to the Courts of Justice Committee for the Virginia House of Delegates. He is the co-author of A Balanced DUI Defense Strategy: The Three Pronged Method, published in The Journal of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, Volume 22 Number 3 (2010). Before becoming a judge, he was consulted by the media as an expert in traffic law and was a speaker for the Virginia CLE program DUI and Other Serious Traffic Offenses.
Rhonda Quagliana, St. John, Bowling, Lawrence & Quagliana, LLP / Charlottesville (Expand/Collapse Bio)
Rhonda Quagliana, author of Chapter 3, received both her Ph.D. and law degrees from the University of Virginia and her undergraduate degree from Tulane University. She is a partner with St. John, Bowling, Lawrence & Quagliana, LLP, a litigation and business transaction firm that represents clients in state and federal courts in a variety of matters. Her general litigation practice includes an emphasis on complex civil and criminal cases. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Virginia School of Law where she teaches trial advocacy. Ms. Quagliana serves as a substitute judge in General District and Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Courts of the Sixteenth Judicial District.
Ms. Quagliana has lectured on a number of topics, including the effective use of voir dire in criminal trials, litigating death penalty cases, and the importance of pro-bono efforts by attorneys in their communities. She has authored materials on such subjects as the recovery of damages in Virginia courts and criminal procedure.
Donald S. Sawicki / Saint Louis (Expand/Collapse Bio)
Donald S. Sawicki is the author of Chapter 6. His radar experience includes working for major defense contractors, such as McDonnell Aircraft Company, Emerson Electric Company, and Hughes Aircraft Company, with experience in system engineering, integration, and compatibility for multi-mode radars on high-performance aircraft, such as the Northrop F-5 Tiger (APQ-157/159 radars), the McDonnell F-15 Eagle (APG-63/70 radars) and F/A-18 Hornet (APG- 65 radar). Presentations include speaking at the 35th Annual Tri-Service Radar Symposium, June 1989 (United States Military Academy, West Point, New York). Mr. Sawicki graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign/ Urbana with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE). He is the author of the Police Radar Handbook and a consultant for the Police Radar Information Center website at www.CopRadar.com.